Step 5: Add Compute Nodes to the Cluster

After the node template has been configured and the device drivers have been added, you can start deploying the compute nodes in your HPC cluster.

Important

Before turning on a compute node for this procedure, verify in the configuration of the BIOS of the computer that will serve as the compute node will boot from the network adapter that is connected to the private network, instead of booting from the local hard drive or another device, and that Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) boot is enabled for that network adapter.

Note

The following procedure is for Windows HPC Server 2008 R2. If you are using Windows HPC Server 2008, the general procedure is similar. However, there are small differences in the user interface.

To deploy the compute nodes

If HPC Cluster Manager is not already open on the head node, open it. Click Start, point to All Programs, click Microsoft HPC Pack, and then click HPC Cluster Manager.

Turn on the computers that you want to add as compute nodes to your cluster. Computers will be listed on the Add Node Wizard as they contact the head node during PXE boot. They will be named using the naming series that you specified when you configured the head node.

When all computers that you have turned on are listed, click Select all, and then click Deploy. If you see a node that you do not want to deploy at this time, you can unselect it.

On the Completing the Add Node Wizard page, if you will be deploying more nodes, click Continue responding to all PXE requests. If you will not be deploying more nodes, click Respond only to PXE requests that come from existing compute nodes.

To track deployment progress, select the Go to Node Management to track progress check box, and then click Finish.

During the deployment process of a compute node, its state is set to Provisioning. When the deployment process completes successfully, the state changes to Offline. To bring online the nodes that have finished deploying:

In Node Management, in the Navigation Pane, click Nodes.

To view only compute nodes that are currently offline, under Nodes, under By State, click Offline.

Select all the nodes that you want to bring online. To select all the nodes that are currently offline, on the views pane, click any node and then press CTRL+A.

In the Actions pane, click Bring Online.

If the deployment of a node fails, the state of that node is set to Unknown and the health is set to Error. To determine the reason of the failure, review the provisioning log for that node:

In Node Management, in the Navigation Pane, click Nodes.

To view only compute nodes that failed to deploy, under Nodes, under By Node Health, click Error.

In the views pane, double-click the node for which you want to review the provisioning log, and then click the Provisioning Log tab.

Note

For more information about troubleshooting node deployment, see the Troubleshooting section (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=122091) of the Windows HPC Server Technical Library.